DGC Book Club – “Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night”

Brown bag lunch 12:30 – Book discussion begins 1:00

Genealogy library

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Belkin, Lisa. Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night. Nonfiction. 2024 Independence Day weekend, 1960: a young cop is murdered, shocking his close-knit community in Stamford, Connecticut. The killer remains at large, his identity still unknown. But on a beach not far away, a young Army doctor, on vacation from his post at a research lab in a maximum-security prison, faces a chilling realization. He knows who the shooter is. In fact, the man—a prisoner out on parole—had called him only days before. By helping his former charge and trainee, the doctor, a believer in second chances, may have inadvertently helped set the murder into motion. And with that one phone call, may have sealed a policeman’s fate. 

Alvin Tarlov, David Troy, and Joseph DeSalvo were all born of the Great Depression, all with grandparents who’d left different homelands for the same American Dream. How did one become a doctor, one a cop, and one a convict? In Genealogy of a Murder, journalist Lisa Belkin traces the paths of each of these three men—one of them her stepfather. Her canvas is large, spanning the first half of the twentieth century: immigration, the struggles of the working class, prison reform, medical experiments, politics and war, the nature/nurture debate, epigenetics, the infamous Leopold and Loeb case, and the history of motorcycle racing. It is also intimate: a look into the workings of the mind and heart. 

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To find a copy of the book, we recommend a public library, audible.com, Amazon, local bookstores, eBay, AddAll.com, betterworldbooks.com, thriftbooks.com and other locations for used books.

During the Book Club Meeting, the next book will be selected. Click During the Book Club Meeting, the next book will be selected. Click here for a list of what’s been suggested and what has already been discussed. Suggestions welcome. Email Suzanne.SPeterson at gmail.com.